Hmong colonel, veteran gets full military burial
Veterans wearing white gloves and uniforms solemnly picked up the American flag on top of Col. Xay Dang Xiong’s casket Monday afternoon.
They held it aloft as American Legion members fired a three-volley salute and a bugler sounded taps before silently folding the flag and presenting it to Xiong’s family with the words “with thanks from a grateful nation.”
America hasn’t always been thankful for Hmong veterans like Xiong who risked their lives in secrecy in Laos during the Vietnam War. Trained by the CIA, members of the Hmong tribe played a critical role.
When American pilots were shot down over Laos, it was Hmong tribesmen who risked their lives to rescue them. When a U.S. Air Force radar station on a mountain in northeastern Laos needed protection, it was Hmong soldiers who secured it.
When the CIA asked Hmong troops to destroy enemy bases and disrupt movement of armies and materiel along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the Hmong answered the call. Among them was Xiong who spent 16 years in the Royal Lao Army fighting in numerous battles while commanding 4,500 troops. He was wounded three times.
But until President Donald Trump signed legislation late last month, Hmong veterans like Xiong were not entitled to full military honors or burial in U.S. national cemeteries. Though Xiong was buried Monday at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee, which is not a national cemetery, he was accorded a full military funeral.
“They’re finally getting the honors they should have gotten years ago,” Milwaukee County Veterans Service Officer James Duff said. “They’re very proud of their service, as they should be.”
On March 23, the president signed the Hmong Veterans’ Service Recognition Act, which allows some Hmongand Laotian-American veterans to be buried in national cemeteries next to the American service members they served with and helped protect. Xiong was the first Hmong veteran burial in Milwaukee since the bill’s signing.
“My father was very proud and very honored” to serve in the military alongside American troops, Chris Xiong said. “He still had bullets in his body. It was vital that he have a military honors service.”
Xiong, 74, died March 15 at his Milwaukee home. After the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, Xiong and his family fled to Thailand because their lives were at risk for helping Americans. He supervised the distribution of food for 13,000 refugees at a camp and is credited with rallying 3,000 people to open a new refugee camp called Ban Vinai that eventually housed 57,000.
He left Thailand in 1977 and immigrated to France before moving to Milwaukee in 1982. Xiong was a Milwaukee Public Schools liaison for Hmong children, taught English as a Second Language, trained Hmong and Lao leaders in Milwaukee and was among those instrumental in establishing Lao Hmong Veterans of America.
Chris Xiong said her father was most proud of helping Hmong become American citizens. He became an American in 1988.
“What I love about his legacy is he trained senior citizens to become American citizens. He was very passionate,” said Chris Xiong, who was born in Laos in 1965.
Wisconsin is home to the third largest concentration of Hmong in the U.S. after California and Minnesota. Almost 50,000 Hmong were living in Wisconsin during the 2010 Census.
The Hmong suffered heavy casualties fighting the Vietnam War — dying at a rate estimated as 10 times as high as American troops. After years in Thai refugee camps, Hmong began immigrating to the United States in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Like other military veterans, Hmong join veterans organizations, march in parades and proudly wear their uniforms. They’re happy the bill signed last month will mean they’ll finally get full military burials in national cemeteries, said Nao Shoua Xiong, secretary of the Wisconsin Lao Veterans of America.
“We want to be shown respect and honor like other Vietnam veterans. We worked together and we fought together during the Vietnam War. We prefer to have the honors for all veterans,” said Nao Shoua Xiong, who lives in Wausau and hopes to be buried in a U.S. national cemetery when he dies.
At Xiong’s burial service Monday afternoon, family members and wellwishers wore medals around their necks featuring a picture of the colonel in his uniform. They stood beneath trees still waiting for leaves to bud while singing “Amazing Grace” in the Hmong language. Then they took turns walking up to Xiong’s final resting place to touch his casket and leave behind red roses.